Being creative at your wedding

I love shooting weddings, because they always allow me to be as creative as I want to be! I get bored pretty easy with regular shots, so today I'm going to tell you a few things that I do to make my images look a little nicer!

1. I love to shoot through things! A couple standing in front of a window is nice, but sometimes it can be kind of boring, so I like to shoot throughs something like flowers or glasses. You can really use anything, but the key it to get your camera close to whatever you're shooting through. The closer you are, the more blurred and cool it will look.

I'm shooting through some glasses that were set up for the reception.

2. If it has just recently rained, look around for puddles. It can even be the smallest dirty puddle, but with the right angle, you can get a real cool reflection. Try to keep your couple from being directly in front of a tree or building so they stand out more ;)

I turned this picture upside down, just because it looked better that way

3. Did you learn about leading lines in your photography class? Use them! Leading lines are just any kind of line that leads to your subject. It can be a stream of water, railroad tracks, or a park bench like you see below. Sometime you have to get into some crazy positions to make a leading line work for you. All I did was sit down and put my lens on the bench... make your couple feel comfortable and you have a great shot!

I love using leading lines in my pictures!

4. For the sake of not giving away all my wedding tips in one post, I'll end with some light painting. A reception can get boring after you've been shooting it for a couple hours, so step away and set up something cool for your bride and groom. If you've never done light painting, off camera flash, or shooting in complete darkness, try it! Brides and Grooms are usually willing to take a break from the dancing to relax a little and you can take a chance at being creative. If it doesn't work out, no big deal... they will appreciate the break either way ;) Below is an example of some light painting I like to do when my receptions allow it. You need a tripod, a flashlight and an off camera flash for this particular shot. Go with a low ISO, about an 8 second long exposure and an aperture around f5.6. It takes a little bit of running around like a mad man to make this particular shot, but give it a shot and see what you can come up with!

the red lighting is all ambient, with a flash to the side and me running around with a flash light.

I would love to hear if any of these tips helped you out or motivated you to do something creative at your wedding! Leave me a comment below and tell me what you think. Now go to your wedding and get some awesome shots today!!! Good luck